Cystic fibrosis: Restoring airway integrity

UNIGE team reveals that hydrating the surface of the airways of people with cystic fibrosis restores their protective barrier against unwanted bacteria

26-May-2022 - Cystic fibrosis is a rare genetic disease which can cause very serious symptoms. In particular, patients suffer from chronic bacterial infections that can lead to respiratory failure. It is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, which regulates water movement across the cell membrane. ...

Boehringer Ingelheim and Partners to Accelerate Development of First-In-Class Gene Therapy for Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

21-Oct-2021 - Boehringer Ingelheim, IP Group, the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium (GTC, consisting of researchers from Imperial College London and the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh) and Oxford Biomedica (OXB), announced today that Boehringer Ingelheim has exercised its options on intellectual ...

Ground-breaking bacteria-killing viruses unite with antibiotics to fight devastating antibiotic-resistant bacteria

23-Sep-2021 - Mycobacterium abscessus, a relative of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and leprosy, is responsible for particularly severe damage to human lungs and can be resistant to many standard antibiotics, making infections extremely challenging to treat. However, there is hope. Bacteria are ...

Simulations show how to make gene therapy more effective

22-Apr-2020 - Diseases with a genetic cause could, in theory, be treated by supplying a correct version of the faulty gene. However, in practice, delivering new genetic material to human cells is difficult. A promising method for the delivery of such genes involves the use of DNA/lipid complexes (lipoplexes). ...

Targeting chronic infections and deadly bacteria

UH researcher examines self-digestion mechanism in persister cells

06-Feb-2020 - A University of Houston engineering professor is examining the life cycle of stubborn, drug-resistant persister cells in recurrent infections to find a way to destroy them. Persister cells are non-growing cell subpopulations observed in many pathogenic bacteria and they certainly live up to their ...

Rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance during standard therapy

How the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa becomes resistant to antibiotics

25-Nov-2019 - Antibiotic-resistant pathogens pose one of the greatest threats to public health worldwide. In the near future, harmless bacterial infections may no longer be treatable and may again become the most common non-natural cause of death. At the same time, the available repertoire of antibacterial ...

A toxic bullet involved in bacterial competition

23-Nov-2018 - A bacterial toxin that allows an infectious strain of bacteria to defeat its competitors has been discovered by Imperial College London scientists. The finding provides a better understanding of the mechanisms behind bacterial warfare, which is the first step for the design of improved treatments ...

Moths and magnets could save lives

Experimental therapy could repair mutations that cause genetic diseases

15-Nov-2018 - A new technology that relies on a moth-infecting virus and nanomagnets could be used to edit defective genes that give rise to diseases like sickle cell, muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. Rice University bioengineer Gang Bao has combined magnetic nanoparticles with a viral container drawn ...

Understanding antibiotic resistance in patients with cystic fibrosis

28-Sep-2018 - A defective gene causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). There, it traps bacteria, causing patients to develop frequent lung infections that progressively damage these vital organs and impair patients' ability to breathe. Most patients with this ...

How infectious bacteria hibernate through treatment

Researchers find that bacteria may opt for persistence as well as resistance to antibiotics

13-Sep-2018 - Disease-causing bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics – which are then no longer effective in treating the infection. Yet they also have another tactic to avoid being killed off by antibiotic treatment. Some cells of the population quietly hide in a dormant state and wait for the danger ...